Nigeria’s unemployment rate has dropped to 4.1% on revised methodology, according to a data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The statistics office cited its new data which it claim was generated “in line with international best practices”. According to the report, the unemployment rate stand at 4.1% in the first quarter of 2023 as against the 5.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Recall that it had earlier published its previous unemployment data around March 2021. Then, it claimed the country witnessed a 33.3% unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The report defines employed persons as “those in paid jobs and who worked for at least one hour in the last seven days, and considers underemployment as those working less than 40 hours a week and declaring themselves willing and available to work.”
The NBS said the revised data “aligns with the rates in other developing countries where work, even if only for a few hours and in low-productivity jobs, is essential to make ends meet, particularly in the absence of any social protection for the unemployed”.
Nigeria has faced high unemployment for decades as rapid population growth continues to outpace economic growth.
